Don’t just leave us hanging. Singing telegram? What is it?
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Well, I don’t want to ruin the surprise for anyone…
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Two questions- did she get the sense that personal statement is truly “optional” for the regular application?
Did they mention if you can apply now and then decide later to apply for honors college? S24 is ready to apply but not sure about honors college (and not feeling the personal statement right now).
Did they show them the application as a screen shot? I am curious how they self report grades. Feel free to DM me if she has anything to share 
Help a girl out I am having a brain fart. What is the term when schools have a list of other schools that they are trying to emulate/be like, etc.? Someone a while ago mentioned it and some schools have it actually listed on their websites but now since I forgot what they use for the term I can’t search it. Does anyone know what I am referring to? Driving me nuts.
Yes, the personal essay is not at all required. Your kid has guaranteed admission if they have 25% class rank OR a 3.0 GPA. They said that if your GPA and class rank is below those numbers or if you do not have the 16 core class requirements, then you will still be considered for admission but they recommend writing the personal essay for those kids.
Yes kids can apply now and decide about honors later. On the application there is a spot to check if you are interested in honors. If undecided, check no and call them later after acceptance and they will send a link. If your kid is definitely going to apply to honors, check yes and they will automatically send an honors link. Admissions office confirmed that acceptance into the university is not linked to the honors application. Whether you check yes or no for honors interest, it will not delay your general acceptance.
For the courses, have a copy of the transcript. Fill out all the core courses in Math, English, Language, Arts/Technical, Science, History. They recommend adding all of them in the core categories if you have more than the minimum number. (For example, they only require 1 art or computer class. If you have both, add both. If you have more than 2 history/social sciences, or more than 3 sciences, add all of them). For the 12th grade classes, the grade is reported as in-progress. Do not add PE, health, or any non-core classes.
It really does take max 60 minutes to do the application. The only reason S24 didn’t press submit was because he is not 100% sure about his 12th grade schedule. He doesn’t want to deal with calling the admissions office to report any changes - although it doesn’t sound like a big deal.
Also - even if you do apply today, the first decisions will not come till mid-August. After that they will be rolling on a 2-4 week time frame. So there will be a 6 week wait for the kids who apply now.
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Peer schools?
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Peer institutions is what I think you’re thinking of. Kind of like this Peer Institutions - Institutional Effectiveness - University of Richmond
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This is super helpful thank you!
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YES! Thank you
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Anyone have info on ASU application? I am looking at their website and it is still saying “apply by November 1 for Fall 2023” which makes no sense to me. I thought it opened July 1 but maybe I am wrong.
they probably haven’t updated their website yet. I bet after the holiday weekend, it’ll be updated for Fall 2024, though!
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D24 won’t be applying to U of A right away. We’ll need a copy of her updated transcript from the counselor, which she’ll get some time in August. But I think that I will probably have her at least get started with filling out some of the other stuff on the Common App this month. It’ll save some time later this fall.
It’s been a stressful 24 hr at our house. D24 told us yesterday during a break at work that the “creepy 30 yr old dude with neck and full arm tattoos” called her “Baby” and that she’d spent the prior hour panicking about what to do (she said he’s kind of scary looking). So I told her to tell a manager right away. D24 was really afraid to do so, but both managers on duty were female yesterday, so she sucked it up and did that.
Well, it turns out that creepy kitchen worker guy had been giving creeper vibes to the female managers AND another young female employee as well. Female manager put D24 on front counter duty the rest of her shift (before this, D24 was on the 1st drive-thru window, which is line-of-sight to creepy kitchen worker guy. The guy had been giving D24 an ‘off’ vibe for quite awhile.
D24 worked today as well. She learned today that the other young female employee was asked by creepy kitchen worker guy yesterday how old she was. 
Female manager told D24 at start of her shift today that on Monday, creepy kitchen worker guy will be fired.
When the local police dept holds their next female personal safety class this fall, we will be signing up. And getting her some pepper spray (you’re allowed to have it in our state w/o a permit).
I’ve told my kids from early on to always listen to their gut. Glad and relieved that D24 has done exactly that.
Also learned through this that D24 doesn’t like guys with a ton of tattoos and that is a total relief to DH & I.
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D24 called out sick for hospital volunteering today and tried to call in sick to work today as well, but was told by employer that she needs a doctor’s note, otherwise she can be suspended.
So she’ll be going to work this evening. They’ve got her slated to put in 30 hr over this next week. Probably because of the holiday.
D24 couldn’t sleep last night from all the anxiety at work yesterday. Said that the 1st 2 hr she was there, she was the only female and after dealing with creepy kitchen worker guy, she was totally panicked. Talked to her for a good hour and a half late last night about all this. DH was involved in 1st part of the conversation and I love my DH very much, but on the topic of female personal safety, this is a topic that he just does not really understand.
D24 is worried that creepy kitchen worker is going to turn into a disgruntled former employee, worried that he’s going to come back to the restaurant in an attempt to harm her, is worried that he’s going to wait for her to get off of work, worried that he’s going to stalk her. Also is worried that the managers like putting her at the 1st drive-thru window, which is at back of the restaurant, away from almost everybody else except for 1 of the kitchen workers stationed near there…honestly, she’s got a little bit of PTSD understandably from the whole thing. She said that she’d feel a lot more comfortable working at 2nd drive thru window or at the front counter, where there’s more people around, and less opportunity for any male employee to try something inappropriate.
Last night was really really hard parenting-wise.
She’s already previously put in applications at 8-9 other places and has heard nothing back from any of them. Honestly, it sort of makes one doubt how badly business want to employ people when they complain that nobody wants to work, but then they don’t contact the people actually applying.
She wants to quit, like, right now. She & I settled on her putting in her notice this evening when she reports to work and she’ll tell them that her last day will be Fri, 7/21.
Counseled the kid on how to answer future interview questions about this job, what NOT to say (DON’T say that you were sexually harassed), etc.
Had a long 1-on-1 conversation w/her late last night about personal safety from a woman’s point of view. No offense to the dads out there, but this is a topic that, frankly, a lot of men just don’t understand.
D24 is maybe 130 lb soaking wet. Not physically big enough to overpower a 200+ guy who could try to attack her. Plus, she doesn’t have any self defense skills or other tools on her to help in such a situation.
We are going to remedy that. Am going to buy her some pepper spray, probably buy her a compact personal alarm, and take her to the free police department class this fall that focuses on women’s self-defense/rape prevention.
DH is concerned that her quitting will mean that she can’t put it on a resume, and that it’ll make it that much harder to get another job elsewhere. I sort of feel like…this part time job isn’t worth it for my kid to have a panic attack. And the job was originally intended to just be a summer thing anyway.
I also talked to her last night about the concept of wolves vs sheep dogs, how to identify somebody as a sheep dog, how to get your brain out of “OMG panic mode” into logical brain mode, etc. She said that she had a conversation w/a new male coworker yesterday that was ‘totally normal,’ the guy was 21, friendly, “not creepy,” and talking to him was normal & friendly, & she didn’t get any creeper vibes from him.
I hate that I’m even having to have these conversations w/my kid. 
So I told her, “Ok, let’s play make believe. What IF creepy kitchen dude just ‘showed up’ there and walked in to the place while you’re there? What IF he threatened you or somebody else working there? Of any of the guys working there at the start of your shift today, which of them give you ‘You can trust me’/sheep dog vibes?” She said 21-yr-old guy, the 2 male managers, probably 1 or 2 other guys, too.
Also drilled into her that she should not, under any circumstances, wait outside at night in the dark alone for me to pick her up, that she should wait inside the restaurant until DH or I get there. Period. Situational awareness. Don’t sit on the ground, in the dark, with your nose in your phone, not paying attention to what’s going on around you. Told her that if she’s driven herself to work and is worried about walking to her car by herself, she can ask a coworker to walk her to the car and pretty much ANY normal person would offer to help her out when asked.
Then we talked about the obvious personal safety stuff for women in college…have a buddy, don’t leave your buddy behind, watch each other’s backs (and drinks), etc.
And I’ve just gotta say…THIS PARENTING THING IS REALLY REALLY HARD SOMETIMES!
Given what’s happened in the last 2 days, I’m pretty sure that Univ of NM is now totally off of the table because of the extremely dark streets surrounding campus.
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D24 is now taking action. Applied for 4 different Target jobs today, including floater positions. She went ahead and entered her school year schedule availability instead of summer availability…since 1 month from today, school starts again.
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I hope you’ve already told her that it’s going to be okay–that most of the creeps just do this because you are trapped in the same space with them, and they do not stalk anyone (it’s actually a good sign that he was being a creep to the other girl too). If you remember, I told you when she was applying that a man threatened to cut my sister into pieces when she worked at KFC. Parents can’t control what happens when young, attractive women work with the general public. As an adult with wrinkles (!), I was stalked for four years by a middle-aged non-traditional student at the campus where I work. People with sad lives and very little to do are out there. However, even in stalking cases (they finally busted him writing me emails and he was expelled), physical harm is very rare, and most of it is opportunistic behavior. I hope she is able to find calm and know she is safe.
I agree 
. My son also did this! And he applied for housing since they base housing placement on when you apply (or maybe he accepted the offer??). He didn’t end up going there and I think we lost $50 on the housing-something pretty minimal.
And yes, the email notification was THE BEST!!
S24 has a 7on7 football tournament in Northampton, MA all day tomorrow. I decided at the last minute to make a little trip out of it so he and I are driving out there today and will stop at UMass Amherst for a tour today. He is dead set against anything in the Northeast but I am making him apply so he has one school close to home. I worry that my homebody will panic next spring when he has no close to home options. He is so desperate to get away from our terrible winters here but loses sight of the fact that he really does love his bed and being home, and the further he goes, the less he will be able to come home. Will report back his impressions.
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AP scores are out! Here’s the aftermath for D24:
- AP Calculus AB - 3. Because of the grading policy at our HS, this brings her C up to a B.
- AP English Lit - 3. Brings her B+ to an A.
- AP Music Theory - 3. Brings her B to an A-.
- AP US History - 3. Brings her C+ to a B+.
- AP French - 2. this one is painful. She had a C at the end of the year going into the exam, so now she’ll end up with a C- in this class. She’s going to take the French CLEP exam, though, to get college credit for this.
So that means that she now has a cumulative weighted GPA of 3.82 and an unweighted GPA of 3.2.
…that, in turn, means that she’s got assured admission to Univ of Arizona, which is a big stress relief for her.
D24 got turned down for the 3 Target jobs that she applied to earlier this week.
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Bummer about French but so good her other grades all went up. Stinks about Target jobs too. No idea what S24 got in AP Comp Sci but not holding my breath. He worked hard in that class and did well but came home from that exam and was like if I get a 2 it will be a miracle. Last year, 65% of the kids got a 2 or a 3. Very few 4’s and 5’s. He is not planning on using AP credit for anything so grade is not a huge issue unless he has to report them for something. And huge congrats of auto admit to U of A- big stress reliever I am sure.
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